A bigger vocabulary can help you express your thoughts and feelings more clearly It can make what you say sound more interesting. It can also improve your performance on tests and make you a better reader.

We learn new words naturally all the time by listening to our parents, friends, teachers, and the TV. With a little effort and a lot of curiosity, you can give your natural learning tendency a push in the right direction.

Develop word radar. Become aware of new words as you read and hear them.

Make an effort to remember new words. keep a list in your notebook, or start a word box with index cards. Write a new word on the front of each card and the definition on the back. Store your cards alphabetically in a file box.

If you come across a new word in a textbook you can’t write in, jot down the word on a removable self-stick note and stick it in the book.

Try to figure out the meanings of new words from their context — the familiar words and phrases that surround them. If you find a word you can’t understand, look it up in the dictionary.

Use a thesaurus. The root meaning of the word “thesaurus” is “treasury.” Think of your thesaurus as a treasury of new words, waiting to be discovered by you.

Use your head. When someone around you says a new word, ask what it means.

Be a word detective. Let your curiosity inspire you to learn more about a word than its meaning. Check its pronunciation and find out where it came from. Examine its roots and track down related words.

Put on your Sherlock Holmes hat and head for the Oxford English Dictionary, called the “OED” for short. Most libraries carry this important reference work. It traces words back through time to their earliest uses, showing how spellings and meanings have changed.

]]>http://jeantarbox.com/learn-new-words/feed/0http://jeantarbox.com/learn-new-words/On Reading 20 Minutes a Dayhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JeanTarbox/~3/mUwGY7qb30E/
http://jeantarbox.com/on-reading-20-minutes-a-day/#commentsFri, 10 Aug 2012 05:53:15 +0000http://jeantarbox.com/?p=908Summertime offers students the opportunity to discover reading for pleasure, especially if they have felt burdened during the school year keeping up with the required texts. Of course, some middle and high schools assign one or two selected texts to be read before the school year begins. This need not, however, preclude the opportunity for students to sink into the delight of their own choices for summer reading.

Summer reading? Shouldn’t students on break from school also count on a break from reading books? Shouldn’t they just be relaxing, seeing friends, enjoying the great outdoors? Not necessarily, not when there is so much to gain from a steady reading habit.

In her bookOvercoming Dyslexia, neuroscientist Sally Shaywitz gives us remarkable statistics about the benefits of reading a minimum of 20 minutes a day. When I share these statistics with students of every level – whether they have learning problems or none at all – the students pay attention.

Impressive Statistics on the Benefits of Reading

20 minutes per day 1.8 million words per year

4.6 minutes per day 282,000 words per year

1 minute per day 8,000 words per year

Shaywitz shows why 20 minutes of reading a day guarantees that a student’s vocabulary will continue to expand; she further explains what is lost when the reading habit is not cultivated. Pre-teens and teen-agers usually change their tune about not liking to read when they see the direct effect of strong reading habits on developing a greater vocabulary, which in turn leads to greater comprehension.

Teaching writing means I teach a love of language, a love of ideas, and a love of reading. I must make the connection between these elements crystal clear to my students. Since so much writing in school is based on a clear comprehension of a new subject introduced in class, or of a theme in a novel, or the principles behind a science experiment, it helps all students to have Shaywitz’s words at the ready.

Books offer almost three times as many interesting or complicated words – words outside the general vocabulary of a sixth grader – compared to even the most educated speakers. Books for adult readers have about fifty rare words for every one thousand words; the spoken language of a college graduate has only about seventeen rare words per one thousand spoken words. Children’s books, too, “have 50 percent more rare words in them than does the conversation of college graduates.” And so simply relying on even the most sophisticated conversations to increase vocabulary falls short of what can be gained through reading.

The powerful influence of early reading on later reading and vocabulary growth was demonstrated when researchers had children keep diaries of how they spent their time when they were not in school. The very best readers, those who scored better than 90 percent of their peers on reading tests, read for more than twenty minutes a day (about 1.8 million words a year), while those at the fiftieth percentile read only 4.6 minutes a day (282,00 words yearly). The poorest readers, those children reading below the tenth percentile, read less than one minute each day (8,000 words a year), and would require one year to read what the best readers read in two days.

Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level by Sally Shaywitz, M.D.

]]>http://jeantarbox.com/on-reading-20-minutes-a-day/feed/0http://jeantarbox.com/on-reading-20-minutes-a-day/Know Your Grammarhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JeanTarbox/~3/HgFVAxNx7nc/
http://jeantarbox.com/know-your-grammar-get-the-job/#commentsWed, 01 Aug 2012 22:28:07 +0000http://jeantarbox.com/?p=942This morning I received a link to an on-line article by Kyle Wiens in the “Harvard Business Review,” explaining why he won’t hire people who use poor grammar. I’m posting the article on my site because Wiens reinforces the argument I use with so many young students: start practicing good language habits now because when you hit the job market, those whose writing reflects correct language usage have an advantage over those who write poorly.

By linking to the article, readers can also follow the discussion that such a topic inevitably provokes. Comments range from an outright attack on Wiens for promoting a class-based standard to challenges of his legal right to even use these standards as job qualifiers. Ebonics is mentioned as is the right of everyone to be skilled in correct usage. I’ve been involved in such conversations for years, but decided the article addresses relevant issues useful for students of every level.

Wiens is in the business of writing, of course, as the CEO of iFixit, the largest online repair community, as well as founder of Dozuki, a software company dedicated to helping manufacturers publish documentation. However, he makes a strong case for the importance of grammar, no matter the type of business.

But grammar is relevant for all companies. Yes, language is constantly changing, but that doesn’t make grammar unimportant. Good grammar is credibility, especially on the Internet. In blog posts, on Facebook statuses, in e-mails, and on company websites, your words are all you have. They are a projection of you in your physical absence. And, for better or worse, people judge you if you can’t tell the difference between their, there, and they’re.

My high school students, and even middle school students, who are technological whizzes imagine they might be able to get by without mastering the old-fashioned grammar and punctuation rules. Wiens’s article should help persuade these students that grammar does matter.

I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. Here’s Why.

by Kyle Wiens

If you think an apostrophe was one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, you will never work for me. If you think a semicolon is a regular colon with an identity crisis, I will not hire you. If you scatter commas into a sentence with all the discrimination of a shotgun, you might make it to the foyer before we politely escort you from the building.

Some might call my approach to grammar extreme, but I prefer Lynne Truss’s more cuddly phraseology: I am a grammar “stickler.” And, like Truss — author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves — I have a “zero tolerance approach” to grammar mistakes that make people look stupid.

Now, Truss and I disagree on what it means to have “zero tolerance.” She thinks that people who mix up their itses “deserve to be struck by lightning, hacked up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave,” while I just think they deserve to be passed over for a job — even if they are otherwise qualified for the position.

Everyone who applies for a position at either of my companies, iFixit or Dozuki, takes a mandatory grammar test. Extenuating circumstances aside (dyslexia, English language learners, etc.), if job hopefuls can’t distinguish between “to” and “too,” their applications go into the bin.

But grammar is relevant for all companies. Yes, language is constantly changing, but that doesn’t make grammar unimportant. Good grammar is credibility, especially on the internet. In blog posts, on Facebook statuses, in e-mails, and on company websites, your words are all you have. They are a projection of you in your physical absence. And, for better or worse, people judge you if you can’t tell the difference between their, their, and they’re.

Good grammar makes good business sense — and not just when it comes to hiring writers. Writing isn’t in the official job description of most people in our office. Still, we give our grammar test to everybody, including our salespeople, our operations staff, and our programmers.

On the face of it, my zero tolerance approach to grammar errors might seem a little unfair. After all, grammar has nothing to do with job performance, or creativity, or intelligence, right?

Wrong. If it takes someone more than 20 years to notice how to properly use “it’s,” then that’s not a learning curve I’m comfortable with. So, even in this hyper-competitive market, I will pass on a great programmer who cannot write.

Grammar signifies more than just a person’s ability to remember high school English. I’ve found that people who make fewer mistakes on a grammar test also make fewer mistakes when they are doing something completely unrelated to writing — like stocking shelves or labeling parts.

In the same vein, programmers who pay attention to how they construct written language also tend to pay a lot more attention to how they code. You see, at its core, code is prose. Great programmers are more than just code monkeys; according to Stanford programming legend Donald Knuth they are “essayists who work with traditional aesthetic and literary forms.” The point: programming should be easily understood by real human beings — not just computers.

And just like good writing and good grammar, when it comes to programming, the devil’s in the details. In fact, when it comes to my whole business, details are everything.

I hire people who care about those details. Applicants who don’t think writing is important are likely to think lots of other (important) things also aren’t important. And I guarantee that even if other companies aren’t issuing grammar tests, they pay attention to sloppy mistakes on résumés. After all, sloppy is as sloppy does.

That’s why I grammar test people who walk in the door looking for a job. Grammar is my litmus test. All applicants say they’re detail-oriented; I just make my employees prove it.

]]>http://jeantarbox.com/know-your-grammar-get-the-job/feed/0http://jeantarbox.com/know-your-grammar-get-the-job/Anxious Writershttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JeanTarbox/~3/a0M_RJ2yTss/
http://jeantarbox.com/anxious-writers/#commentsTue, 31 Jul 2012 06:20:29 +0000http://jeantarbox.com/?p=350Today I’m musing on the question of why so many of my students are anxious about writing. There are philosophical reflections, of course, such as the pace of a modern child’s life, or the constant interruptive nature of the technological world our children live in today, or even the lack of unsupervised play.

Another possible explanation is that our competitive society instills in children and their parents the “scarcity of resources” fear. This is the idea that there are only so many spaces in any given school, university, or job market, and these positions will go to the quickest, the brightest, and the most productive students. With so much on the line, some students fall into perfectionism or become frozen altogether, fearing to make a mistake. Either way, anxiety makes writing assignments an agony.

Additionally, public and private schools compete to provide the most advanced programs available. Schools introduce at earlier levels tasks for which many students are simply not developmentally ready. We hurry students along the learning path, treating the skills to be acquired as so many hurdles to be cleared and then passed beyond. Instead of having the patience to teach the child on his terms, our insistence on mastering another skill set prematurely leaves many young writers frustrated and anxious.

Finally, many schools do not consider support of learning disabilities a legitimate use of limited resources, federal mandates notwithstanding. Writing under pressure with no real support for different learning styles or learning disabilities spells disaster for many students.

Diagnosed learning problems and accommodation become a liability instead of an opportunity to solve problems in new ways. A dreamy, imaginative child who won’t focus on the task at hand is a distraction in the classroom. When students feel shamed but are not directed in helpful ways, their writing anxiety rises dramatically.

Unfortunately, the time a student spends feeling anxious cuts into the precious time and confidence required for planning and executing a writing project.

Parents interested in learning better ways to support their children’s learning style, in lessening their frustration with their children’s learning issues, or in becoming better advocates for their children would benefit from reading any of the authors mentioned above.

]]>http://jeantarbox.com/anxious-writers/feed/0http://jeantarbox.com/anxious-writers/An Excess of Testinghttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JeanTarbox/~3/24_q2FZbZJw/
http://jeantarbox.com/an-excess-of-testing/#commentsWed, 18 Jul 2012 17:33:36 +0000http://jeantarbox.com/?p=870Reading this morning’s Letters to the Editor in the New York Times, I was struck by the brief analysis of our education system offered by Stephen Krashen, professor emeritus at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education. Krashen pinpoints a main cause of poor performance – poverty in children’s lives – that most dialogues on the subject of education standards refuse to address. If this subject interests you, check out the New York Times’s Sunday Review on July 22 for responses and Krashen’s rejoinder.

New York Times, July 18, 2012

Invitation to a Dialogue: An Excess of Testing

To the Editor:

The common core standards movement seems to be common sense: Our schools should have similar standards, what students should know at each grade. The movement, however, is based on the false assumption that our schools are broken, that ineffective teaching is the problem and that rigorous standards and tests are necessary to improve things.

The mediocre performance of American students on international tests seems to show that our schools are doing poorly. But students from middle-class homes who attend well-funded schools rank among the best in the world on these tests, which means that teaching is not the problem. The problem is poverty. Our overall scores are unspectacular because so many American children live in poverty (23 percent, ranking us 34th out of 35 “economically advanced countries”).

Poverty means inadequate nutrition and health care, and little access to books, all associated with lower school achievement. Addressing those needs will increase achievement and better the lives of millions of children.

How can we pay for this? Reduce testing. The common core, adopted by 45 states, demands an astonishing increase in testing, far more than needed and far more than the already excessive amount required by No Child Left Behind.

No Child Left Behind requires tests in math and reading at the end of the school year in grades 3 to 8 and once in high school. The common core will test more subjects and more grade levels, and adds tests given during the year. There may also be pretests in the fall.

The cost will be enormous. New York City plans to spend over half a billion dollars on technology in schools, primarily so that students can take the electronically delivered national tests.

Research shows that increasing testing does not increase achievement. A better investment is protecting children from the effects of poverty, in feeding the animal, not just weighing it.

STEPHEN KRASHEN
Los Angeles, July 16, 2012

The writer is professor emeritus at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education.

Editors’ Note: We invite readers to respond to this letter for the Sunday Dialogue. We plan to publish responses and Mr. Krashen’s rejoinder in the Sunday Review. E-mail:letters@nytimes.com

]]>http://jeantarbox.com/an-excess-of-testing/feed/0http://jeantarbox.com/an-excess-of-testing/Comma Guidelineshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JeanTarbox/~3/Hohmx9OFV_k/
http://jeantarbox.com/comma-guidelines/#commentsThu, 12 Jul 2012 02:45:36 +0000http://jeantarbox.com/?p=790Last week I wrote Commas are Complicated and then received several requests for a printable version of some examples. In the spirit of summertime ease, I’m posting a somewhat abbreviated set of examples adapted from several sources. I list only the most common examples and do not address the exceptions.

For more detailed explanations, consult the sources mentioned in Commas are Complicated. I also advise readers to also consult Diana Hacker on unnecessary commas used too often by many students.

COMMAS*

A comma is a delicate kink in time, a pause within a sentence, a chance to catch your breath (Karen Elizabeth Gordon in TheNewWell-Tempered Sentence, p. 21).

However, not all of us catch our breaths at the same time, so inserting commas whenever you feel inclined to pause may not always be accurate. Paying attention to the italicized sentences in this section will help the comma guidelines stick!

Use the examples below to learn more.

ITEMS IN A SERIES

Three or more terms with a single conjunction require a comma after each term except the last.

—Bubbles of air, leaves, ferns, bits of wood, and insects are often found trapped in amber.

–He is walking up walls, crawling sideways, and turning somersaults as he approaches the queen.

Notes:

–This comma is often referred to as the “serial” (or “Oxford”) comma.

–Although some writers view the comma between the last two items as optional, most experts advise using the comma because its omission can result in ambiguity or misreading.

–Uncle David willed me all of his property, houses, and warehouses.

–Uncle David willed me all of his property, houses and warehouses.

Without the second comma, confusion exists. Did Uncle David will his property and houses and warehouses – or simply his property, consisting of houses and warehouses? If the former meaning is intended, a comma is necessary to prevent ambiguity.

–In the names of business firms the last comma is usually omitted.

–Brown, Shipley and Co.

–Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & SmithIncorporated

LENGTHY INTRODUCTORY MATERIAL OR SHORT INTRODUCTORY MATERIAL OF SIGNIFICANCE

—However, Bertrand’s instincts concerning the treatment of angry teenagers had never failed him yet.—After these severe rainstorms, we check to see if the river is rising to dangerous levels.—As far as I’m concerned, no texting should take place at the dinner table. —When Irwin was ready to iron, his cat tripped on the cord. .—Near a small stream at the bottom of the canyon, the park rangers discovered an abandoned mine.

NONESSENTIAL INFORMATION AND/OR WORDS THAT INTERRUPT THE FLOW OF THOUGHT

–Raymond, who usually wears overalls, showed up in a formal black tuxedo.–Her long red hair, which normally she kept tied back in a ribbon, blew wildly in the wind as she danced in the field.–The final act of the play, which was surprisingly hilarious, left the audience in an upbeat mood. –Those bookshelves, I must say, are an invitation to read poetry for a week.

NOTE: To figure out whether or not information is essential, remove the information from the sentence and observe the effect. Nonessential information can be lifted from a sentence without significantly changing its meaning.

NONESSENTIAL CLOSING MATERIAL

–We never arrived, which upset a bunch of excitable, aged aunts and uncles.–I was exhausted, having paced the floor with our new baby three nights in a row.–He left college heartbrokenly, not being able to afford the next year’s fees.

Examples:–The suspect removed his grimy white gloves, but another pair lurked beneath.–The left-handed members of the board were banging their soup spoons, and the chairman left the podium in anger.–I haven’t done it yet, so I don’t think I could do it again.–He told her he disliked ice cream, yet he ate the entire carton of Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia.

A PERSON SPOKEN TO IN DIRECT ADDRESS

–Forgive us, Dr. Atkins, for having rolls with dinner tonight.–We’ll have more than rhetorical questions, young lady, when we get to your reasons for skipping school yesterday.

TWO OR MORE COORDINATE ADJECTIVES THAT MODIFY THE SAME NOUN IF AND CAN BE INSERTED BETWEEN THEM WITHOUT CHANGING THE MEANING

Adjectives that do not modify the noun separately are cumulative. Cumulative adjectives are not separated by commas because they cannot be joined with and. They lean on one another, piggyback style, with each modifying a larger word group.

–Ira ordered a rich chocolate layer cake.

–My cat’s pupils had constricted to small black shining slits.

–In the corner of the closet we found an old maroon hatbox from Sears.

–I was born on March 17, 1947, in a small house on the prairie.–She came to the palace on May 7, 1956, to take her place among her fellow ladies in waiting.

DIRECT QUOTATIONS

— “I’ve been wondering, Jasmine,” said Jimmy shyly, “if you’d care to go to the concert tonight.”— As he usually did when entering a room of strangers, he thought fondly and desperately of his motto, “Be cool,” which never did him any good.

— Adapted from:

*Format for this entry is from Western Carolina University’s online writing resources.

]]>http://jeantarbox.com/comma-guidelines/feed/0http://jeantarbox.com/comma-guidelines/The Khan Academyhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JeanTarbox/~3/F7WSW-t2UDk/
http://jeantarbox.com/the-kahn-academy/#commentsTue, 10 Jul 2012 04:43:45 +0000http://jeantarbox.com/?p=757I first heard about the Khan Academy in early 2011 when MIT-educated Salman Khan told his story at the annual TED conference. I immediately forwarded the “Ted Talk” video of Khan’s innovative approach of free online tutorials to several students, parents, teachers and learning specialists whom I thought might find this resource particularly useful. Now with this blog, I’m able to share Khan’s vision with a much wider audience.

We all need inspiration to continue on our chosen paths. Hearing Salman Khan’s story, reading about how so many others became involved with his Khan Academy, and watching this non-profit enterprise evolve in so organic a fashion has kept me hopeful for a future of unknown possibilities. I trust that others of you will be equally inspired.

We’re a small team trying our best to improve the way the world learns. Too many people around the globe don’t have access to good education materials, or they are forced to learn through a system that doesn’t properly cater to their individual needs. We think the technology exists today to fundamentally change this, and we’re trying to build the tools and resources every student deserves.

We believe a few great people can make a big difference. We strive to hire the very best — people who are passionate, thoughtful and creative. We believe it is our obligation to relentlessly focus on what the student values, and we make every decision with the student in mind.

The Khan Academy story begins in 2004 when Khan offered to tutor his young cousins in mathematics using Yahoo’s Doodle notepad and the telephone. Soon Khan decided it would be more practical to record his help sessions and post them to YouTube, where his cousins could watch them at their own pace. Before long other YouTube viewers were watching the videos, too, praising the material for finally helping them understand a concept they had been struggling to learn.

The tutorials’ popularity on YouTube and the testimonials of appreciative students prompted Khan to quit his job in finance as a hedge fund analyst at Connective Capital Management in 2009 and focus full-time on the tutorials, then released under the moniker “Khan Academy.” After Khan’s appearance at the TED conference in 2011, the Khan Academy became an internet sensation.

In May 2011 Khan appeared on the Charlie Rose show, and I highly recommend viewing this program. Here we see Khan in a more relaxed mode while describing how he himself grew to see the potential of what he had created. His infectious sense of humor and the breadth of his vision captivate, to say the least.

The Khan Academy, now with around 28 employees, is an organization on a mission.

We’re a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere.

All of the site’s resources are available to anyone. It doesn’t matter if you are a student, teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology. The Khan Academy’s materials and resources are available to you completely free of charge.

Today the Khan Academy has an online library with over 3200 videos covering K – 12 math (basic arithmetic and pre-algebra through differential equations and linear algebra); science topics such as biology, chemistry, and physics; and now reaches into the humanities with videos on finance and history. Each video is a digestible chunk, approximately ten minutes long, and especially purposed for viewing on the computer.

PC Magazine reviewed the Khan Academy in December 2011—an article worth reading for an overview of the Academy’s history, a mention of the pros and cons of the site, and an explanation of why the Khan Academy provides effective online learning.

What makes video-based learning unique is that the learner can go at his or her own pace, re-watch videos or pause them to think through an idea, and fit it when it’s most convenient. Khan Academy just gets it, keeping the actual videos frills-free and the material approachable.

If you are a student, parent, or just a life-long learner, Khan Academy will become a household name. The site has been expanding rapidly, so a few growing pains are evident, particularly in terms of organizing the content to be searchable in different ways (i.e., drill-down method). The Goals feature could stand some improvement, too. But Khan’s content is phenomenal, and that is what ultimately matters.

The Khan Academy’s decision to expand into freely available content in the arts and humanities means I will be referring more students to their tutorials. I’m interested in my students learning how great swaths of history can be broken up into digestible parts. Watching a Khan Academy historian skip over small details of a period to create the larger frame of reference supports my own approach to helping students understand the larger context of a historical era. The graphics are similar to those I use to show students how to visualize history.

In late 2011 Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, founders of Smarthistory.org, joined forces with the Khan Academy to help create the humanities-based content and learning strategies. Over time, expect to see tighter integration of Smarthistory’s content with Khan Academy programs. Already online are over 300 art history videos, and you can see them all at Smarthistory.khanacademy.org. As well, there exist 26 history videos covering US history and French history. The goal is to eventually offer a history of the entire world.

Visit the Khan Academy website and experience for yourself the adventure of these remarkable tutorials. They will wake you up, and perhaps you will revisit subjects you once thought beyond your talent or grasp. Good luck!

One of the true pleasures of my work with students is to deepen their appreciation of the red marks made in the margins of their papers. These are proof of their teachers’ efforts to improve their students’ writing prowess. Too often students toss papers after they’ve been returned with a grade, never to look at them.

Instead of seeing the red ink comments as criticism, I encourage my students to study the comments and to incorporate the suggested stylistic changes into their next papers. Keeping a portfolio of written work for future reference and noting improvements is one of the keys to becoming a stronger writer.

By happy coincidence, I have a wonderful story to illustrate how even the very best writers never escape the red marks in the margins. Sharing this story with students might help them feel less discouraged when challenged on stylistic or content choices they’ve made for a writing project.

Writing about commas in my last post, I found myself looking through an older edition of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. To my delight, tucked into the worn pages, was a memorial tribute to Eleanor Gould Packard written by Verlyn Klinkenborg, a New York Times editorial board member, on the occasion of Miss Gould’s death in February 2005. Those sonorous names alone should keep you reading.

Eleanor Gould Packard joined The New Yorker staff in 1945, and for 54 years challenged the logic, syntax, grammar, flow, usage, punctuation and vocabulary of legions of our best-known nonfiction writers. Known as Miss Gould to the staff, her questions, comments and admonitions appeared as red marks in the margins of thousands of articles.

Miss Gould did not have a job title. She was neither a fact-checker nor a story editor, neither a copy editor nor a proofreader. As noted in her obituary:

She did not enter the process until an article had been examined by lawyers and editors and was in galley proof, close to the last minute. She worked her way down both margins, penciling corrections and suggestions in a legible hand, always providing her rationale.

Miss Gould cited as the pinnacle of her status the acknowledgement she received in the 1972 edition of The Elements of Style. The citation reads, “The coauthor, E.B. White, is most grateful to Eleanor Gould Packard for her assistance in the preparation of the second edition.”

As someone who benefited from Miss Gould’s pencil, Verlyn Klinkenborg was well-positioned to pay her tribute, and I include here the entire text of his appreciation.

I never met Miss Gould. But deep in a box at home are the proofs of articles I once wrote for The New Yorker, and in the margins is the handwriting of Eleanor Gould Packard – the magazine’s venerable arbiter of style, who died on Sunday at 87. I thought I knew a lot about the English language at the time. I had a Ph.D. in English literature from Princeton, an old-fashioned kind of doctorate with an emphasis on literary history and textual editing. So it came as a surprise to see those proofs. Broader questions had been settled. But it was clear from Miss Gould’s annotations – her very direct strictures – that a few details of syntax, usage and logic still needed to be fixed.

I reacted the way I suppose many writers did when they first saw a Gould proof – with disbelief and dismissal. But a writer soon learns to welcome anyone who can offer real insight into the nature of prose, and that Miss Gould could certainly do. I learned from her neatly inscribed comments that even though I was writing correctly – no syntactical flat tires, no grammatical fender-benders – I was often not really listening to what I was saying. That may seem impossible to a reader who isn’t a writer. But Miss Gould’s great gift wasn’t taking writers seriously. It was taking their words seriously. No writer, at first, is quite prepared for that.

Miss Gould managed to seem larger than life without ever leaving the margins of the unpublished page. To some people, I suspect, she came to embody the negative image of the copy editor: punctilious, schoolmarmish and blue-stockinged. But the grasp she had on the written word, on the inner springs and impulses of the language, made grammar and syntax and diction resemble the laws of physics. From one angle, those laws mark the limits of nature. From another angle, they define the very energies that shape the universe and make it intelligible.

The next time a student complains to me about a teacher’s red marks in the margins of a paper, I will pass on Klinkenborg’s tribute to Miss Gould.

When I suggest punctuation handbooks or send someone helpful articles on the comma, the usual response is “Now I know why I can’t understand commas. It’s too complicated.”

The confusion about commas becomes a free pass to not even try to tackle the problem. And honestly, I don’t blame those who shy away from entering the morass of comma details.

My students’ summer inquiries, or laments, about commas inspired me to review the rules that I take for granted by now. This is not to say that I do not on a regular basis look up correct usage, and even then worry that I am making an obvious mistake.

We all agree that commas help us communicate more clearly with one another, expressing meaning and intention. Yet, for nearly every comma rule there exist variables and exceptions. Questions of style and personal preference come into play. One teacher may insist on a particular usage, while another teacher prefers a different rule. As well, we adults know that different academic disciplines or publishers often have their own in-house style books.

No wonder students are confused. The one piece of advice I offer students is that the comma usage they decide upon must be maintained consistently throughout the entire piece of writing.

If I, who loves the game, am sometimes perplexed, I certainly have sympathy with anyone just trying to get the writing project off their desk with as few mistakes as possible. Do I choose to use the serial, or Oxford, comma or not? What is a serial comma? Oxford comma? Whatever are you speaking of?!

I’ve neither the time nor the inclination to replicate here what numerous online sites and books do so very well, i.e., set out comma usage rules and even list the most common comma mistakes made by students. I will, however, share favorite books and online sites that I consult regularly when searching for comma sense. These tools should help readers better navigate this complicated terrain.

When seeking help with commas, students often just want the visual rules – 1, 2, 3, 4. Unfortunately, some wrestling with textual explanations is necessary, even if excerpted from longer articles or sections from style books. I hope my review of different sources will help readers choose what might be the most appealing entry point to this subject.

Last week I went to several bookstores to peruse punctuation books that might appeal to younger students as well as those for middle school and high school students. To my surprise, I discovered few books beyond the standard favorites that I’ve used for years.

Before mentioning books, I would first like to recommend Ben Yagoda’s website as a resource for parents and students on the lookout for precise, engaging reflections on clear writing. An English professor at University of Delaware, Yagoda is the author of several books, including The Sound on the Page: Style

To give a student an insight into the purpose of commas and a taste of why it’s fun to use Karen Elizabeth Gordon as a punctuation guide, I have only to read aloud her opening paean to commas:

A comma is a delicate kink in time, a pause within a sentence, a chance to catch your breath. A curvaceous acrobat, it capers over the page. A comma keeps apart two words, or bits of thought, that would confuse if they touched. Some of the instances calling for commas are inflexible, and the only way to get around them is to find another way to state and arrange your ideas. Other uses, though, are intended to make the reader’s experience easier, and are up to the writer’s discretion or whim.

For those of you interested, Western Carolina University’s on-line writing resources has available for downloading a one-page PDF of comma rules adapted from Gordon’s book.

In Eats, Shoots & Leaves Lynn Truss helps students understand the significant complication in the case of comma rules.

More than any other mark, the comma draws our attention to the mixed origins of modern punctuation, and its consequent mingling of two quite distinct functions:

1. To illuminate the grammar of a sentence

2. To point up – rather in the manner of musical notation – such literary qualities as rhythm, direction, pitch, tone and flow

In other words, punctuation performs its grammatical function, but in the mind of the reader it does more than that. It tells the reader how to hum the tune.

There also now exists an illustrated version of the original Eats, Shoots & Leaves – an enticement to engage younger readers. Unfortunately, feedback from my students on Truss’s book leads me to believe the text is difficult for young readers to penetrate. There are few headings and no index.

I bought the book and went immediately to the chapter on “The Joy of Punctuation.” O’Conner invites us to consider commas with this explanation:

When you talk, your voice, with its pauses, stresses, rises, and falls, shows how you intend your words to fit together. When you write, punctuation marks are the road signs (stop, go, yield, slow, detour) that guide the reader, and you wouldn’t be understood without them.

Thecomma was invented to help readers. Without it,sentence parts can collide into one another unexpectedly, causing misreading. . . . Various rules have evolved to prevent misreading and to speed readers along through complex grammatical structures.

Hacker details comma rules in one section, and in another she explains when not to use commas.

I find the Rules for Writers spiral-bound handbook one of the most accessible for students who want to take charge of improving all areas of their writing. Hacker covers: the writing process; document design; clarity; grammar; ESL challenges; punctuation; mechanics; academic writing; research, including MLA and APA papers; and includes thirty pages of the basics – parts of speech, sentence patterns, subordinate word groups, sentence types. This book has its own website, where more examples and discussions occur.

The Elements of Style, now in its fourth edition, is a good starting point as an introduction to usage rules, if just for the famous dictum, “Omit needless words.” The several pages on commas are useful, but it is also amusing and informative to read how other grammar police consider The Elements of Stylean outdated “aging zombie of a book . . . a hodgepodge, its now-antiquated pet peeves jostling for space with 1970s taboos and 1990s computer advice.”

I advise parents to have some fun with the resources mentioned, encouraging their children to play at commas. Students are more willing to meet the challenge of commas when they realize that everyone finds them confusing and that learning the rules is a progressive exercise that takes years. However, with each new rule or circumstance mastered comes more powerful, meaningful writing.

]]>http://jeantarbox.com/commas-are-complicated/feed/0http://jeantarbox.com/commas-are-complicated/Summer Readinghttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JeanTarbox/~3/cIs_e1RbTck/
http://jeantarbox.com/summer-reading/#commentsMon, 04 Jun 2012 02:54:19 +0000http://jeantarbox.com/?p=338At this time of the year I’m often asked by parents and students in the 5th – 8th grade range for summer reading suggestions. Fortunately, Anita Silvey’s500 Great Books for Teens eases the selection process. I recommend this book as a great family library standard for readers in the 12 – 18 age range. In some ways, browsing Silvey’s book is as much fun as spending time in a bookstore.

I’ve had terrific feedback from my students who have used 500 Great Books for Teens. Students have chosen books they never would have considered, in genres not previously to their liking, simply because Silvey’s summaries intrigued them. This alone – stretching a student into new territory – should have parents and students running out to buy this book NOW.

Silvey has selected contemporary and classic adult and young adult titles that meet her criteria for exemplary writing and wide appeal. However, what I like most about 500 Great Books for Teens is howuseful it is to the readers themselves. This is not just a compilation of lists.

First, Silvey goes far beyond the usual two- or three-sentence annotation summing up a plot. She writes short summaries for each book, making certain that everyone understands the major focus of each title.

Second, the book is divided into twenty-one sections, representing different reading tastes and genres. She includes in each section several books that have set the standard for the literature. Then she tries to balance each section for the age of readers, reading skills, and backgrounds. Beyond the classics, she has tried to include the best titles of the twenty-first century.

She then goes on to entice the reader with newer subject offerings such as “Edgy, Trendsetting Novels,” “Graphic Novels,” “Many Cultures, Many Realities,” “Poetry and Poetic Novels,” “Plays,” “Politics and Social Conscience,” “Religion and Spirituality,” “Short Stories,” “War and Conflict.”

Silvey’s explanation of why she added the “Information” section convinces me that she has an abiding faith in the teen-age reader’s interest in real events and real people, and putting their world in context. She suggests books that have some of the best literary writing available. A sample from this section includes Stephen Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West; Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies; John Fleischman’s Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science; and Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.

500 Great Books for Teens guarantees continual reading adventures for students and a chance for parents to remind themselves of favorite books read long ago.